No-confidence motion was determined through Parliamentary procedures which have now become legal binding document
Dear Editor,
Much has been said about the no-confidence motion that led to the “collapse” of the APNU+AFC coalition government and I wish not to reiterate that information here other than to share two views. The first view is that the no-confidence motion was determined through Parliamentary procedures which have now become a legal binding document. To repeat, the coalition government has fallen and everything else is peripheral to this reality. Of course, the myriad opinions that have emerged to challenge the validity of the no-confidence motion should be allowed but the public should understand that they are merely comic sideshows. The time has come now for the government to resign and take up its function as a caretaker government as enshrined in the constitution. To take another position might very well lead to instability and chaos. However and whatever position the government takes, the fundamental point is that the government has fallen through legal and lawful means and should carry out governmental duties accordingly such as paving the way for a general election within 90 days from December 21, 2018. There should not be any deviation from the interpretations of this reality as well as the rights of Guyanese citizenship. The constitution is there for Guyanese to have a say and not to be divided or suppressed by some bizarre and twisted explanations of the noconfidence motion. Even if the government takes the ruling of no-confidence motion to court in two weeks, two months or longer, it has to by law or at least to democratic norms resign and hold elections.
The second view is that the APNU+AFC coalition has over the past three years taken an increasingly antidemocratic posture and pattern and the most obvious is the unilateral choosing of the GECOM chairman by the President and the now flip-flop position on the successful no-confidence motion with the obvious preference to reverse it to suit its desperate needs. Given the coalition’s anti-democratic tendencies, one cannot help but ask if the APNU+AFC coalition would accept the result of the general election in early 2019 or in mid-2020. Right now, the coalition is holding on to power like a hungry alligator holding to a small fish in a large pond.
Yours faithfully,
Lomarsh Roopnarine are engaged in frenetic forum shopping in search of a way to undo what was legally and constitutionally carried by the majority in the National Assembly to facilitate the resignation of the APNU+AFC coalition administration.
Moreover, the official announcement that ‘cabinet has established a sub-committee to examine all the legal options available and to advise on the legal and constitutional aspects of the vote and to report to cabinet on December 27’, should be viewed as an intriguing development that should neither be overlooked nor ignored.
Should the APNU+AFC decide to ‘Dis’ the constitutional provisions that advises them to perform to the ’Bye, Bye Birdie’ musical parody, that would no doubt result in a constitutional crisis of unimaginable proportions.
Progressive and democratic-minded Guyanese at home and abroad would deem such a development an attack on all the rights they struggled for and secured over the years since independence.
Thankfully, there is an important saving grace; Guyana as a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the OAS, UNASUR and CARICOM is a state party to a slew of multilateral treaties, covenants and conventions that commits the nation to uphold universally shared beliefs and values, democratic governance as well as the fundamental civil, political and human rights of the Guyanese people.
It follows therefore, that were the APNU+AFC to violate the constitutional provisions that requires the coalition government to do the right thing and resign, such action would, beyond the shadow of a doubt, throw Guyana into a tailspin from which it would take years to recover.
The ball is therefore firmly in the court of the Granger administration to ensure that the political climate leading up to the dissolution of parliament and during the entire elections campaign remains politically stable.
This is not to say that the political opposition does not share any responsibility whatsoever to ensure that peace and good order prevails throughout the country. On the contrary, it does. However, much depends on the actions of government and the PNCR in particular at this critical juncture of our country’s political history.
Yours faithfully,
Clement J. Rohee